Sundries & Curiosities for the Adventurous. A Tribal Inquiry.

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light seeps in

Perhaps Rumi said it best: “Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” We all need to find that field beyond guilt and responsibility, beyond sin and redemption, where there’s rest for the busy mind, always arguing, elaborating, affirming, condemning, criticizing; rest for the anguished heart, seeking meaning in a confused world full of conflicting demands; and rest from the insidious fear that we’ll be caught out because, in spite of all our good intentions, we’re sure to get it wrong again.

One path to Rumi’s field is to listen to the spaces between the many words we say and hear. Or to attend to the sound of silence itself. This space between doings and achievings is non-invasive. It doesn’t demand action, but provides nourishment. We could call it endless time, where we feel cared for, liberated from the sense that we must perform, get stuff done, realize a potential, serve a cause, help a friend. The fact is, endless time is always there—ready to flood in whenever we have sense enough to lay down our perceived burdens. If I can give up for a moment the problems that seem so important, so immediate, so real, then I will find myself immersed in another order of reality—the world of sound, touch, taste, smell, and unrecognized feelings. That could be where joy begins.

And while Endless Time can be like prayer or meditation, casting off the cares of the day for a private moment of quiet in the back room, the funny thing is that this wider space can open just as easily on a crowded subway platform where a mass of humanity hurries to their next thing. I exchange a look with a fellow passenger and feel connected to these rushing lives, as full of joy and fear and investments in relationships as mine. Then the noise recedes and inner quiet floods in from a world beyond time.

~Patty de Llosa

what lies beneath each layer? and how do you peel back the forever changing guardians of all that dulls us?